St. Marks Evangelical Lutheran Church​

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As July approaches with its Fourth of July celebration and as war escalates in the Middle East and as there are calls to make American values and Christian values identical, I wonder how does our vision of Christ conflict with or agree with our culture. This reminds me of the work of Richard Niebuhr. An excellent summary of his work is found in a blog, “Christ and Culture” – An Overview of a Christian Classic by Trevin Wax, February 25, 2015. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/christ-and-culture-an-overview-of-a-christian-classic/. Trevin writes:

H. Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture is one of the most significant theological and missiological works of the 20th century, offering a memorable categorization of the ways Christians have related to culture throughout history.

Summary

Niebuhr’s work begins with definitions. Who is Christ? He is the New Testament figure, crucified and raised from the dead, the One whom Christians accept as their authority (11-13).

“Belief in him and loyalty to his cause involves men in the double movement from world to God and from God to world” (29).

What is culture? It is the social life of humanity, the environment created by human beings in the areas of “language, habits, ideas, beliefs, customs, social organization, inherited artifacts, technical processes, and values” (32).

Niebuhr turns next to various ways in which Christians have sought to live faithfully under the authority of Christ as they relate to the culture surrounding them. There are three major choices:
• opposition to culture (Christ against culture),
• agreement between Christ and culture (Christ of culture),
• and a combination that incorporates insights from both of these two views (Christ above culture).

Within the third framework are three variations:
•a synthetic type that sees Christ as the fulfillment of culture,
•a dualistic type that sees an ongoing tension between Christ and culture,
•and a conversionist type that portrays Jesus as the converter of culture and society.

Trevin in the rest of the blog fleshes out and gives more descriptive details of each of these three basic understandings. I agree more with Christ against Culture for I see our culture values money, violence, and power, and I find Jesus Christ calling us to simplicity, peace-making, and humble service. How do you see it?

Peace,

Pastor Doug